In what may signal the need to fix the nation’s refineries and save the huge foreign exchange spent on petroleum products import, while keeping jobs in the domestic economy, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), on Friday released data showing that stakeholders imported petroleum products worth about N2.586 trillion last year.
Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) alone accounted for 18.812 billion litres worth N2.019 trillion or 77.72% of the year’s total spend; while 4.898 billion litres of Automotive Gas Oil (or diesel) were imported for N505.816 billion. A total of 713.789 million litres of Household Kerosene were imported during the period for N70.756 billion.
A further breakdown of the NBS data showed that Lagos was the destination of 23,207 or 18.65% of the total 124,420 trucks of petrol moved across the country last year, containing 828.236 million or 17.14% of the 4.83 billion litres in 2016; followed by Kano with 8,503 trucks or 385.582 million litres; while 7,654 trucks moved 317.721 million litres of petrol into Niger.
Of the import bill for the year, according to the Petroleum Products Statistics for the fourth quarter of 2016, a total of N790.456 billion was spent importing Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), automotive gas oil (AGO) and household kerosene between October and December last year.
A breakdown of the figure showed that petrol expectedly scooped the lion’s share with 4.83 billion litres worth N629.6 billion, representing 79.65% of total value of imports.
It was followed by 182.9 million litres of household kerosene (HHK) was imported at the cost of at N136.1 billion; while one million litres of automotive gas oil (AGO) was imported at the cost of N24.7 billion.